Episode 3 - What are Dreams? Occult Symbolism and Portals to Other Worlds: Discussion (Part 2)

Hello! In Episode 3, I explore the topic of dreams and how they relate to occult practices like spirit communication, channeling, lucidity, divination and more. What do you believe your dreams are attempting to tell you? Come and explore the realm of the unknown with me. Thank you all for listening. Enjoy!!  

"Do what though wilt shall be the whole of the law" - Aleister Crowley

"Discover that which makes you shine, always and forever into infinity"

-Joseph Matthew 

Transcript

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Welcome, one and all, to the Magic Music Podcast. I'm your host, Joseph Matthew, and in this series, we will be discussing various occult and esoteric practices in music, art, and culture. So sit back, relax, and let's explore the unknown together. Enjoy. How do dreams kind of intertwine? with the occult. So we talked about dreams and how musicians can make songs from what they see and hear and feel in that dream. So in terms of the occult, dreams can be portals to somewhere else. I think portals is a good word to use because it's like you're portal is you're like something manifesting in another realm or reality you're stepping through something maybe or you get rearranged in like another way right like i can't access the dream world unless i'm asleep to dream while you're awake i think i'm not even sure if that can happen Maybe if you, you know, do a lot of like drugs and stuff and your mind's really not that okay. I think that's maybe what psychosis is. Awake and dreaming at the same time where the lines blur. And psychopaths, I don't even know what dreams they have. Like that's pretty interesting. I wonder if there's been any studies on that. I might have to check that out. I'm like fascinated with serial killers and psychopaths. Not that I like, you know, desire to do anything like that. I don't understand that. I think that's why it attracts me so much is because I don't understand what goes through their heads really. Like how you can get that angry and that obsessed. It's like there's something mentally skewed there. But in many occult traditions, dreams are seen as gateways to other realms, whether spiritual, astral, or subconscious. You're not just processing thoughts, you're traveling, receiving messages, and even communing with spirits. Yeah, it's a lot to perceive how big is the dream realm. I think it's infinite. There's nothing that's off limits.

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The more I think about it, it is like a crude

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AI video. Whenever I

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see these bizarre AI videos, there's this one guy

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on YouTube that has them morph into each other. know these beings that can uh essentially morph and let's just see if i can pull it up here so ai video generators man are really crazy i mean it's like infinite infinite possibilities that you can kind of like cycle through when i was making This podcast and like the artwork for it, I was using an AI generator for the cover and with the name and it wasn't getting it like 100% right. It was making mistakes and like every so often it would correct itself and it would land on something really, really cool and fascinating. Yeah, the money's right on point on Target. There's definitely a lot out there. Meme Dream Machine and then there's like, you know, Creepy AI. Which, yeah, that's definitely... I'm watching a monster. Wow, that's terrifying. It's like some guy's head. He has long red hair and he's like this small crawling creature. And then the abominable snowman. Wow, this is like... Yeah, just look up, you know, if you guys are curious, like just creepy AI videos because it's basically... I think people would agree with me that there's like, you know...

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And like, you know, the unsettling images turned into AI. Like...

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Oh man, yeah, that's,

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it's just, it's nightmare fuel, but that's what nightmares are. Like we've been able to turn that into something that we can visually see. So

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maybe we don't even need your brain to be hooked up to a device to see your dreams. Maybe AI is already doing it for us. Got my coffee here from QuickCheck. and i love quick check do you guys have quick checks near you because you should probably go i really like their coffee and my i always joke with my wife like she said today she's like we're probably single-handedly keeping this quick check open there's one like you know a couple minutes away from me all right here we go astral projection Astral projection. Now, let's see, some occultists believe dreams, especially lucid ones, are a form of the soul leaving the body to explore the astral plane. I can tell you that when I was in college, I almost had an experience like with the astral realm because I was like laying down and I started to feel myself like, you know, go upwards towards this like focal point and I kept ascending and ascending and ascending and I almost broke through almost like this ceiling tapped it like I punched it but I wasn't able to get through you know so if I let myself go a little further who knows but you have to be very careful astral projecting I've never done it but I've heard stories so you know it might be it might be real or not or you're dreaming or something who knows but stories of people astral projecting are pretty nuts like you feel this this rope or this tether to like your physical body and if you venture out too far you might not come back like that's kind of what they say it's almost like venturing out into space if you're doing maintenance on the space station and like in the movies the space station like blows up or gets hit by like a meteorite and there's like a single astronaut you know just floating in space There was definitely a movie like that with Sandra Bullock. Alone or something. I don't know. Alone in space. That's basically what it was. She was just fucking alone in space with nothing else there. Just floating. Contemplating. What do you even think about in that situation? Hey, I'm floating around in space and there's no one around to save me. You're dead. You're just dead. So yeah, you're going to think about your life, you're going to think about what you've done, and you're going to maybe have some regrets because there's no one else but you floating around, untethered to something that can take you back home. Dream walking. In certain native and shamanic traditions, trained practitioners can enter other people's dreams or interact with spiritual guides in dream space. Yeah, that's like jumping into... that realm. You have someone who's asleep and then you have someone who's in a deep, deep meditative trance that can maybe see and peek into your mind or access it fully. Like they'll get like 5% or 100% depending on how far along they are in like a shamanic, a shamanic training that they're doing. I find that so fascinating in like Native American tribes. I don't even want to name any tribes. I don't know, like Navajo tribes Yeah, I'm not going to go through. I can't remember right now. But basically, yeah, just certain cultures, not just Native Americans, but in Africa, Egypt, all over the world. You know, there are people that believe in this stuff and shamans and these visions that they get through something else. And I believe that they probably are. Let's see. And then dream incubation. This is an ancient magical practice where you ask for a dream. usually to receive insight, guidance, or a prophetic vision. It's practiced in ancient Greece. People would sleep in temples hoping for healing dreams. It's like if you sleep in a haunted house or a castle or a hut or a tent. That's another aspect of dreams too. It's like where are you located? Are you located in your comfy bed? Or are you located in the middle of the forest? at night and you hear sounds and you're like oh my god i might die so that's yeah that you're gonna have a stress dream if you even fall asleep there's wild animals out there there's like homeless people that that might live in the woods it's a it's a really terrifying place i love nature but i wouldn't want to live that deep in the woods i'd be want to be close have a few acres of land would be pretty sweet but like know my territory wander out Unless I, you know, had a walking path or something. I've can't before and I don't really like it. Just like staying in a cabin is definitely ideal because you can get air conditioning heat and still be close to like, you know, nature, I guess, or and kind of enjoying it from to know that you're going to be good and not get mauled by wild animals. So ancient Greece, sorry, I did that. Mystery schools and hermeticism. Hermeticism we're going to touch on a lot in this podcast. Something that I value and I appreciate as a way of life in an art form. So initiates would meditate or fast to induce spiritually charged dreams. Meditation, yeah, like you can access or attempt to access something. through being in this like state where you're maybe half dreaming and half awake but more on the verge of a sleep and then you there's like a point where maybe you can access something like a door that unlocks it's it's practice it takes time and patience and perseverance with most things and fasting man i've fasted before you know i tried like a day i'm not like encouraging it but Just trying, it's pretty cool. To either skip a meal or something, right? Just have coffee for breakfast. Sometimes I'll just have a protein bar, and then I'll have lunch, and that's usually a salad with vegetables and chicken, and then I bring yogurt or fruit or something. So I try to, you know, my lunches are pretty healthy. I try to keep myself healthy as much as possible. I drink coffee, I've been drinking a lot recently, but I might just cut back by one every couple days or so. A little treat for myself, maybe just on Fridays. Modern magic. Some occult practitioners use sigils, crystals, or ritual before bed to influence dreams. Sigils are, you know, kind of esoteric symbols that you can draw. You can draw anything you want. There's like sigil magic where certain sign is imbued with the powers kind of your desires like maybe what you want writing something down you know you can say like you know i i want love in my life you know and now you can turn the letters into a symbol there's a certain way to do it i've tried doing it before and it doesn't really come out that cool like i tried a bunch you know but start with like a rough draft or just whatever comes to you i probably wouldn't overthink it i'd probably just write it down I'd be like, that is my sigil that I'm going to use. Maybe I'll print it out and put it on my nightstand or on my mirror or something while I'm getting ready. You just look at this sigil that you know the meaning of, but no one else does. That's the key. That is the key. That is supposed to be secretive. There are a lot of things now where people can't keep their mouth shut. They can't keep secrets. Maybe that's just human beings. In general, throughout time, we're not good at keeping secrets. But if you have something where you're kind of hiding something from another person or like someone asks, like, that's a cool symbol. Like, what does it mean? Divination through dreams. Dreams can be a form of oneiromancy, I guess. A type of divination. Interesting. In this tradition, dreams aren't random. They're meaningful symbols sent by God's spirits or the higher self. So even though dreams can seem random, maybe there's certain things in there that it's supposed to be in these sequential events that maybe don't make sense to you, but that's just how you're going through the dream. Because you can't really control it. It's like you just go with it, right? Like the dream takes a hold of you. It's like this is what you're going to experience now, whether you like it or not. like symbols, like a snake might mean healing or danger, depending on the context. The Kabbalah in Jewish, and we're going to touch on that also, the Kabbalah, which is very, it's kind of complicated at first, but I think I'm going to go through all the different levels so that you guys can get a better understanding of it. I'm sure people have before, but just to kind of branch off a little bit, there's a book that I've been reading by Alan Moore and Stephen Moore, and it's called The... moon and serpent bumper book of magic and if anyone's interested in getting into the idea of magic and esotericism and the occult this is a really good book because what a bumper book is it's kind of like a comic book but it's like educational so they split it up it's kind of like different sections of like you know they might make a comic And there's some kind of message in that comic. And then they'll have just full paragraphs and they're explaining the Kabbalah or different astrological signs and different occultists throughout history, throughout time and space. It's very, very, very interesting how they break it down because, like I said, the occult is very dense and a large, broad... word that is misconstrued in this time it's not really brought to the forefront it's more of like oh like wow like you're a witch cut type thing it still has that connotation to it which you know i think it should be more prevalent i really do if we imbue symbols with what we love and desire it has to be good okay it has to be something that's not dark or hedonistic At least in my perspective, but other people actually do that. You know, they have these like, I desire more money, whether that's like an extra couple bucks or if you want millions and millions and millions of dollars. And you're going to touch that symbol every day and say, I'm going to just like fuck over all these people to get as much money as I can. Then you're going to do that. You're going to do that. Like, you have to be able to control yourself and take a step back and and say, okay, I know that getting more money, like I can steal it, or maybe I can just work for it because it'll be more meaningful to me. But other people don't really think like that, which is pretty scary. But, you know, everyone's different, right? So, the Kabbalah. In Jewish mysticism, dreams may reveal hidden truths often analyzed for mystical numbers and meanings. Yeah, there's a numerological system that they use, which I don't want to get into now. It's pretty dense. But I'll try to explain it in the best way that I can. I think I'll just kind of go from that book and not read directly from it. I'm not sure if I can, but just summarize the basic points, you know, because it's online. It's for everyone to see. You can type in, you know, what does the Kabbalah mean. It's also called the Tree of Life, which I have a ring with a tree on it, and it's gold and silver. I didn't drop a lot of bread on it. You know, trust me. It was one of those rings that was probably like 20 bucks. And I have other rings too, you know. Five-pointed star that I wear. The pentacle. And then tarot and dreams. So, yeah, the tarot is a very interesting way to look into your past, your present, and your future. You know, and everything betwixt and between. I have a tarot card set, which I am going to go through the tarot with you guys as well. Because actually, I want to learn more about it too. Again, I'm not an expert. I'm kind of just exploring these topics so that it'll get my mind, like the juice is flowing, you know, and just thinking like, hmm, there's no hatred here. We're just chilling. And yeah, so like some combined dream journaling with tarot pulls to decode deeper messages. so dream journaling is something that is pretty interesting like if you keep a log of everything that you're doing whether that's like you know daily activities in the physical world or when you're asleep and you write down the first thing that you remember it's it's pretty revealing it's definitely can add some thought to your day of like what did that mean Like, do I even want to think about it, or do I just want to? Because it's going to go away. Dreams are always fleeting. If you don't remember it within the first couple minutes, you kind of forget about it. And then later on in the day, you're kind of like, oh, wow, I had this crazy dream, and now I kind of remember it. So it comes in waves. Dreams as spirit communication. Many cult traditions view dreams as a space where entities, ancestors, or spirit guides interact can speak to you. So that's where, you know, when I had the dream about my great aunts, that's, yeah, I believe it was some form of communication. At least I think that, you know, other people might not, but it was so potent that it just, it had to be that. If I had to pick something, you know, as like an answer to that, which I'll never know, but I believe the answer was they were trying to communicate. And maybe they did open a portal for Every for a while, I'm sure that takes a lot of energy to do, right? So African diasporic religions, for example, voodoo, Santeria. Voodoo and Santeria, dreams are messages from spirits, like Loa and Orishas. I hope I'm saying those right. And then witchcraft and folk magic. Dreams can warn of hexes, send omens, or be a place to cast spells or bind intentions. yeah so if you want to say like oh man i hope that guy has a really bad day you know he can like make cut out of his like face or something and like throw a dart at it and be like hey i hope you have a bad day but i'm not again i'm not promoting that it's like when witches put like a curse on you like oh i curse your entire family and their children and their children and their children and their children and it keeps going down this like ridiculous line But you know, there is generational trauma too. So it's like maybe that like every family is different. Every family, you know, faces their own struggles and they're good people that are born and bad people that are born. And maybe that's over time, good and bad. You know, you're kind of like a clean slate when you're born, I think. And then over time, it's like how you're raised and your environment plays a massive factor in that. know and your experience shapes you for sure i'm different than you know my neighbor or my wife or my child you know so yeah it's like all just like the experiences so lucid dreaming and occult practice and the occult lucid dreaming isn't just fun it's a spiritual discipline you become aware in the dream and then use it for spell work meeting guides shadow work like facing your inner darkness, exploring archetypes and the collective unconscious. So it's like, you know, Carl Jung, you know, meets esoteric stuff. His work is incredible. I'm a big fan of his for sure. Guys like him. And then I know guys like Jordan Peterson cite Jung and like other, you know, Guys like that, throughout history, guys that have studied this stuff, and people, and have, you know, tested this, and they came to this conclusion, you know, over time. They didn't just, like, guess it. Like, it was like, okay, this is, I have, maybe have some type of evidence for this, even though it's kind of, like, basey and out there. Especially the times that, like, in the time that he lived and wrote those things. Carl Jung, yeah, I don't know. His stuff now is extremely... influential let's see so yeah the collective unconscious also it's probably massive you know the scope of it there's different like a cult if you see a cult like symbols in your dreams it could be pointing you in a specific direction or maybe like warning you about something or like letting you know that something's going to come like a snake is deception fear danger spiritual meaning is transformation kundalini energy hidden wisdom and context matters a snake attacking may warn of betrayal a peaceful snake might represent awakening spiritual power that's pretty cool and then let's see fire Shadow meaning is destruction, rage, purification by force. Spiritual meaning is rebirth, cleansing, divine inspiration, like the burning bush in the Bible.